Greetings, lovelies!

Welcome to the Epicurean Cure! Here we celebrate thinking – rigorously, critically, and enthusiastically – about and through the texts we love: from literature to video games, films, comics, poetry, television, and everything in between. Our goal here is to bring together academics and the creators and consumers of pop culture, to engage in dialogue and collaboration, and recognise the value of bi-directional exchange: that texts are worthy of our time and analysis (whether over a glass of wine with friends, in the classroom, or in our offices), and that rigorous thinking and academic tools can shine light on the stories we adore, and help us shape new ones. We’re particularly interested in tropes and patterns, and you’ll see discussions of philosophical and linguistic tropes in addition to the commonly recognised literary ones (damsels, knights and squishy wizards). In addition to our musings, you’ll find reviews, interviews with a variety of interesting folk, and going forward, new creative pieces that play with the ideas explored here.

A philosopher, a linguist, and a web developer walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What is this, some kind of trope?"

We bring a bunch of enthusiasm, a variety of expertise, and some helpful analytical tools: new ways to think about the media we consume, to challenge our perceptions and misconceptions, reveal our assumptions, and subvert and transcend the old tropes. The content should be accessible, readable, navigable – there’s no reason academia should be elitist or jargon-heavy, and we’ll be trying to avoid that here (where there is jargon, it should be explained and purposeful). But we believe in precision, clarity and rigour, as well as occasionally making people smile – accessible needn’t mean oversimplified, and academic needn’t mean humourless.

There’s more info on our about page, but this site isn’t just about us and the research we do, it’s also about you! If you’d like to get involved, there are plenty of ways to do so. Otherwise, have a browse, and let us know in the comments what you've found interesting, and what you'd like to see explored in future instalments.